Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Holy
Week/Easter (varies):Also called
Semana Santa in Spanish. Holy Week is the week prior to Easter and is
celebrated with far more vigor than most places in the US.Churches will hold special Semana Santa
services throughout the week, highlighting and retelling the story of the crucifixion.Salvadorans also enjoy chocolate
bunnies, coloring everything in pastel colors, and Easter egg hunts as
well.There are certain foods that
are served around this time, like dried fish with eggs, different kinds of
candies made from mangoes and plums with honey, as well as a sweet bread called
torreja.Processions are common, and one tradition that some cities
do is to lay down a carpet of sawdust with brightly colored flowers to decorate
the streets.

Labor
Day (May 1):This day is used to
celebrate the worker and is also used to discuss the state of labor and labor
issues at hand.Many cities hold
parades on this day, and many people use this day as a means of protesting
different labor issues, such as low wages and rising costs of goods.

The Day
of the Cross (May 3): This holiday is a mix of Catholicism and indigenous
believes.People place a cross
made of the jiote tree in the courtyard and place fruits underneath it, mainly
seasonal ones like mangoes, bananas, and cashews (I wanted to try cashews when
I went to Brazil, but because it was early spring, and I was in the south of
Brazil, it wasn’t in season).People will pray before this highly decorated cross and eat the fruit
afterwards.The Spanish tradition
celebrates St. Helena’s discovery of the Cross of Christ, and the Indian
tradition is a celebration of Mother Earth and the god of skinning, Xipe
Totec.

Mother’s
Day (May 10):While Mother’s Day
in the US changes every year (it’s the second Sunday in May), in El Salvador,
it’s a fixed date.Mothers there
are held in higher esteem than what I feel they are in the US sometimes.In El Salvador, they are the glue that
holds families together and are often the ones taking care of running the
family.People will often take a day
or two before or after Mother’s Day to travel to see their mothers and shower
them with treating them to a meal out, flowers, jewelry, etc.

Father’s
Day (June 17): Like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is celebrated on the same day
every year.And without saying so,
Father’s Day is treated in the same manner, with treating your father with
gifts and doing thoughtful things for him.

August
Festivals (August 1-7): This weeklong festival is in honor of San Salvador’s
patron saint, Jesus Christ.(The
name of the country El Salvador literally means “the savior.”)Primarily held in the capital of San
Salvador, a variety of events fill the week including parades, music festivals,
fireworks displays, street fests, etc. Many people will have at least half the
week off from work and will head to the beaches or mountains to find some
R&R.

Independence
Day (September 15):This marks the
day that El Salvador declared its independence from Spain.Town and cities across the country
celebrate with parades and fireworks displays.School marching bands play patriotic songs, and cultural and
historical displays decorate the towns.The day always ends with a huge fireworks display.

Day of
the Children (October 1): This day is aimed at celebrating children. On this
day, towns and cities will have events for children for parents to take their
children to.

Day of
the Race (October 12):Held on the
same day that Americans celebrate Columbus Day, many Hispanic countries do not
necessarily celebrate Columbus’ landing in the Caribbean.Because Columbus wasn’t really the most
gracious of guests, it left somewhat of a bad taste in the mouths of many of
these countries.So, they changed
it to “Day of the Race” (or “Dia de la Raza” in Spanish) to celebrate their
Hispanic heritage.Many parades
and cultural festivals are held on this day.

Day of
the Dead (November 2):This
holiday is celebrated throughout the Hispanosphere. It’s a holiday to celebrate
those who have passed on.People
often visit the graves of loved ones, pray, and lay wreathes and flowers.
Sometimes they use fragrant flowers and branches to make it smell good. A
popular food at this time is tamales.

National
Festival of Pupusa (November 7-13):This is the national dish.In fact, we’re making this when I cook Salvadoran food this weekend.It’s like a thick corn tortilla filled
with cheese, refried beans, and sometimes shredded pork and then fried and
served with a side of curtido, a Salvadoran cross between sauerkraut and Korean
kimchi. There are pupusa eating competitions and awards to those who dedicate
their lives to making pupusas.In
fact in 2007, many Salvadorans got together to make the world’s largest pupusa
and made it into the Guinness Book of World Records – it was large enough to
feed more than 5000 people.

Queen of
the Peace Day (November 21):Queen
of the Peace is the patron saint of El Salvador.Huge festivals take place, rivaling that of Mardi Gras in
New Orleans.The largest
celebrations are held in San Miguel.Music is such an integral part of this festival that you can find up to
45 bands performing throughout the celebration.

Christmas
Eve/Christmas Day (December 24-25):As a primarily Christian country, Christmas is no doubt the largest
holiday of the year.Roasted
turkey, chicken and a variety of sides, desserts, and alcohol are commonly
found at Christmas dinners.Fireworks are also popular as well as singing and dancing. In El
Salvador, people generally celebrate on Christmas Eve with family and friends
and place gifts around a decorated Christmas tree and nativity scenes (which are a must).

New
Year’s Eve (December 31):Like
other countries, New Year’s Eve is celebrated by large parties and festivals,
and people turn the streets into a giant party atmosphere. Salvadorans count
the minutes down with the rest of the world and at the stroke of midnight,
fireworks displays are set off, and the party continues.Food, alcohol, music, and dancing last
until the early hours of the morning.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Ok, I’m
back. Well, I would’ve been right on schedule had I known my doctor was going
to cancel my surgery in lieu of getting my thyroid back to normal.Sheesh, this is getting to be too much
drama for me. I think what I need is some food from El Salvador.

El
Salvador is the smallest country in the Central American isthmus on the Pacific
Ocean side. In fact, it’s the only country in Central America that doesn’t
touch the Atlantic (just like how Belize is the only one that doesn’t touch the
Pacific).It’s surrounded by
Guatemala and Honduras.El
Salvador is plagued with frequent and disastrous earthquakes, along with having
over twenty volcanoes, some of which are still active – such wonderful gifts
from being on the Ring of Fire. It also has over 300 rivers, the most important
of which is the Rio Lempa. They have a definite rainy and dry season, even
though they call their rainy season winter, which is actually from May to
October.(I wish it just rained
during winter here.)Hurricanes
are also a threat to the country, as well as other extreme weather like El
Niño, La Niña and droughts. El Salvador is also a country with a rich
biodiversity because of its tropical climate. They’re known for being home to
several species of sea turtles.

The
capital city is San Salvador. It’s
not only the largest city with about 2.4 million people in the metro area, but
it’s also vital as the government, culture, educational, and economic center.
It’s been the host of several international and pan-American sports
competitions. In almost every
sense, San Salvador is a modern city and tourist attraction with museums,
parks, shopping, excellent restaurants, and cultural arts.

The
original inhabitants were the Pipil people, who spoke Nahuatl. It’s also believed
that the Mayans may have also been in the area as well, since El Salvador lies
on the edge of their civilization.
El Salvador wasn’t able to escape the same smallpox epidemic that his
other areas of the Caribbean, Central, and South America when the Spaniards
made their entrance. The Spanish
practically lost their minds over the gold found in Mexico and Guatemala, but
when they got to the Pipil lands, they were sorely dismayed at the lack of
gold. However, the area had great soil from the volcanic lands. So, they kept
it anyway. There were many battles fought between the Pipils and the Spanish,
ones in which the Pipil didn’t fare so well. Finally, Salvadorans banded
together and declared their independence from Spain. Soon after that, they joined Costa Rica, Guatemala,
Honduras, and Nicaragua to create the Federal Republic of Central America. It
only lasted 20 years until it dissolved, and El Salvador became it’s own
independent country until it joined the Greater Republic of Central America,
along with Honduras and Nicaragua. It dissolved after two years, and El
Salvador once again became it’s own independent country. The country turned its
focus on coffee production as its main means of economic growth. The 20th century brought
along a string of political uprisings and coup d’états. There have been many economic reforms
in the 1990s and other social reforms aimed at bettering the state of the
union. Crime remains a prevalent
problem throughout the country.

The
economy in this country has had its ups and downs. In fact, like Ecuador, El Salvador adapted the US Dollar as
its currency to stabilize their economy.
Natural disasters have always had a negative impact on their economy as
they struggle to rebuild. El
Salvador has often been considered a mono-export country, meaning one that
pretty much relies on one product.
It used to be indigo but later switched to coffee. Inflation is fairly
steady although still one of the lowest in the region. And even at that, it still has the
third largest economy in Central America.
They are seeing growth, and like other Central American and Caribbean
countries, ecotourism is one contribution. Remittances from abroad – when people move to another
country for employment and send part of the money home – are another
contribution, as well as free-trade agreements.

Look at the size of those baskets -- this has GOT to be back-breaking work.

The vast
majority of Salvadorans identify themselves as Christians – Roman Catholics as
the primary denomination, followed by Protestantism.The next most common belief is non-belief: this includes
people who are atheist, agnostic, or people who believe in some sort of god but
doesn’t have a religion.There are
other religions represented in El Salvador but with much smaller followings.

Spanish
is the most widely-spoken language in El Salvador. Other indigenous languages that are spoken by a small
population are Q’eqchi’ (a language spoken by indigenous people from Guetemalan
and Belizian who were living in El Salvador), Nawat, and Maya, although these
speakers also speak Spanish as well.
Common foreign languages that are learned in school are French, Dutch,
German, and English. And since
WWII, there are also small Japanese and Taiwanese communities as well.

There
are a few famous people of Salvadoran descent. Christy Turlington, model for Calvin Klein, Maybelline, and
Versace is half-Salvadoran. Writer
and artist Consuelo de Saint Exupéry is from El Salvador; she married French
writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of one of my favorite books, The Little Prince. And unfortunately, the street gang
MS-13 that is based in Los Angeles, San Francisco and many other cities across
the US, Canada, Mexico, and Central America is made up of ex-pat Salvadorans.
But on the other hand, it’s one of the few countries that is experiencing
reforestation of its tropical rain forests. It does host one UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a place
called Joya de Ceren. The entire site
was covered in ashes after a volcanic explosion and has been called the
“Pompeii of the Americas.” It
makes you wonder perhaps how many other things that have been buries under
volcanic ash that we haven’t discovered yet.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Today is a lot of things. First, today is the Superbowl, the championship football game between the winners of the AFC and the NFC conferences. This year, it is between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. I personally don’t have any huge preference either way. I think my husband is leaning towards the Seahawks, but a lot of people in Indiana are rooting for Denver just because Peyton Manning is on the team. My prediction is that the team with the most points at the end of the game will win. Today is also Groundhog’s Day. It’s a weird holiday, where in the state of Pennsylvania, they have a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil. If he comes out of his hole and it’s cloudy, then spring will come early. If he emerges on a sunny day and sees his shadow, then he’ll climb back in his hole, and there will be six more weeks of winter. Apparently, we’re getting more winter. Yeah. Whoop. Dee. Doo.

Sorry New York, these are better than bagels. I can't wait to have one for breakfast.

But in an effort to not think about that, I’m cooking food from Egypt, a warm weather country. The first thing I’m starting on is the bread – for this, I chose semit. It’s like a bread ring topped with sesame seeds. First, I dissolved my yeast in warm water, adding in warm milk with salt and sugar. Then I poured it in the middle of my flour and let it sit before kneading it until it’s smooth. After it sits for a while, I kneaded it again on my dough mat – and let it sit more. Then I tore a piece off about the size of an egg and rolled it into a rope and looped it around to make a ring. After I made about 15 rings, I brushed the tops with a beaten egg and dipped the tops in a bowl of sesame seeds. They almost look like bagels at this time. At this time, it rests again while I put a pan of water on the bottom rack in my oven until it gets hot. Then it’s time to put the baking sheet of semit into the oven for 15 minutes at 425ºF. I really liked these, and I think the general consensus was that this was the best part of the meal. It was like a soft bagel. I have some honey-nut cream cheese that would go nicely with it.

So, so good. The perfect cold weather comfort food. I'm making this again.

The main meal is koshari. It’s pretty much considered the national dish. I cooked the lentils until they were tender, and cooked the rice until it was done, as well as cooked the orzo until it was soft as well. Once all three of these were done, I placed them in a large pot. I fried the onions until they were browned and put them with the oil into the rice-orzo-lentil mix. I topped with tomato sauce and chili powder and mixed everything together until it was mixed thoroughly. This was really good. Even though I think I was supposed to put the onions, tomato sauce, and chili powder on top of the rice-orzo-lentil mix. Oh, well. It was easier to mix everything in one big pot. But I loved the subtleness of all the flavors together. Almost like a meatless jambalaya of sorts. And if it were just me, I'd make it a whole lot spicier.

Seriously, how do you go wrong with this?

I made the salata arabieh to go with this. It was pretty easy: I mixed chopped cherry tomatoes, baby cucumbers, onions, garlic, red pepper, green pepper, mint flakes, parsley flakes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and I topped this with feta cheese (even though I can’t remember if feta cheese was originally in this recipe or not. I might have combined two difference recipes). I’ve made something similar for past countries, but this one had added mint that I liked.

This did not disappoint in the least.

I liked this meal, especially the koshari. No wonder it’s considered the national dish. And THAT was really good. My husband and I talked about making this again but with some added Andouille sausage. (He’s such a carnivore, but I think that would be good.) I was so excited about this meal, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. I wish things would get better in Egypt so that I felt more comfortable with visiting there. Perhaps by the time one of my books sell, and I save up the money, it’ll be ok to go. And that’ll be years and years from now. But until then, I can enjoy their food.

**And on a side note, I decided I’ll have to delay the next installment of my blog. Because I would be cooking food from El Salvador just a day after I get out of the hospital for an upcoming surgery, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be up for cooking. So, I’ll start posting again about a week after that.

The ancient Egyptians attributed the invention of
music to Hathor, which Osiris used to try to civilize the people on earth.
Egyptians tended to use a variety of percussion instruments, string instruments
(including lyres, lutes, and harps), and woodwind instruments (including flutes
including one called the ney, recorders, and double clarinets).

Arabic music consists of maqamats, which are like
melodic modes that are also the basis of improvisation, showing the pitches,
patterns, and the particular developments for a certain piece of music. To me,
these are similar to Indian ragas, although I’m not sure how they might be
different. I’d definitely have to do more in-depth research on that. Ordinarily,
the most common types of these modes most Egyptian music is written is based on
the Phrygian dominant scale, Phrygian scale, double harmonic scale (also called
the Arabic scale), or the Lydian scale.

Egyptian music served many functions.It was a way to bring social and class issues
to the table in a subtle way.And
both Muslim and Coptic music is important to the development of Egyptian music
as well.The music of Lower Egypt
(the part closer to the Mediterranean) and Upper Egypt (farther south, including
Nubia) have their own varieties of style and instrumentation. As Egypt moved
into the late 19th and on into the 20th century,
influences from European music took hold as well as Egypt’s influences on
European music, including Giuseppe Verdi’s Egyptian-themed opera Aida.

Dancing in Egypt was extremely important and all
social classes used dance as a means of expression.Dance also had its functions, and there were many different
kinds of dances used for different events. The lower classes had dance
competitions and dance festivals, and the upper classes had harem dances and
others. The main difference was that the upper classes were usually socially
forbidden to dance in public – a joy that the lower classes enjoyed. There were
dances where people danced by themselves, danced in pairs (usually
female-female and male-male), or danced in a group.Sometimes they used props, such as “castanets” and canes.

I did find some modern music on Spotify.One musician I found is Ramy Gamal. He
has a mix of traditional-sounding Arabic music mixed with a little bit of dance
feel to a couple of the songs, but I thought most of the songs are slower. I
like it, though. Khaled Salim is another who also has similar music.

However, if you are wanting more upbeat songs, I found
Amr Diab’s album Rewind (Remix). I
like this one much better. Even though, I think this is the original version of the song. But, oh well.

Marwa Nasr is one of the few female musicians that
I was able to find, although I’m sure there are probably a lot out there. The
album I listened to was more of a pop/R&B style mixed with the traditional
Arabic music. Nesma Mahgoub is another female musician of this same style.

I found the album Al Malek Howa Al Malek by Mohamed Mounir. He was an important musician who emerged in the early years, and has become an icon for all musicians. (The video posted is a newer song with images from the 2011 Revolution -- I wish I knew what the lyrics meant.) I’m kind of at a loss as
to how to describe the music from this album. It certainly falls in the traditional style of music,
with a lot of percussion as a basis to the music, various string instruments
and woodwinds, and the vocals include the lead male voice along with female
backup singers who sing in response. Many of the songs are fast-paced, but
there are a few slower songs. This album, as well as the others, highlights the
traditional styles of Arabic singing with trills and changes in inflection. One
thing that separates traditional Middle Eastern and Indian music from European
music is that they divide the intervals further than the traditional half-step
taught in most classroom music. They often utilize quarter-steps that Western
listeners find difficult to accept and not interpret the pitch as flat or
sharp.Sometimes, I think it’s
difficult sometimes for Western listeners to open their minds to other musical
concepts outside of what is normally taught.I know it was difficult for me in the beginning, but now
that I’m far more open to other culture’s music, it’s really a cool thing.

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About Me

I'm really nerdy. I have several writing projects going on, and I also have a really long list of books I'm working my way through; I'm still adding books to it, so in essence, I'll never get through it. I'm an amateur food and culture blogger, an amateur baker and cook, an amateur musicologist, an amateur grammarian, an amateur know-it-all, and a professional dreamer. Follow me on Twitter: @KayoSmada.